Database of Business

[Vinsomelosesome]

Originally Posted by aclepius

Vinsomelosesome,

Your reply was actually quite inspitational, after I got past the initial scathing sarcasm, of course.

Thanks

I must thank you for this comment. Not many would have succeeded in getting past my sarcasm, so that makes you quite unique. Hope all goes well for your project. Do keep us posted.

[aclepius]

Hi all,

Ok, If you've read my initial post you'll know the task I've been assigned.

After a meeting with my Sales Director I feel we have agreed upon a more managable objective (although the initial task must still remain the 'ideal' to keep in mind).

I know have to source a company who can provide a list of businesses which can be filtered/divided by SIC code and post code at a competive price.

I need to be able to respond to my Manager's request to identify, say, all garages or hotels in the UK, and then divide that list post code by post code so I can notify the relevant agent in a particular area of where and how many of the said businesses are.

This information still has to be recorded electronically but distributed to the agents by paper, unfortunately.

I have a list of companies that provide b2b databases. My next move is email/phone with enquiries outlining what I need and gather quotes.

Does anyone have any additional suggestions about my short term strategy, or any advice or recommendations?

TPS registered businesses are a concern. Where do I stand with that?

Any help appreciated very much.

Thanks guys!

[fisicx]

If they are TPS then there's not much you can do about it.

It's still a massive task - and it's going to cost a few bob: £299 for just one database alone. And you will need more than one, since not every business is listed on every directory. In fact I'd bet that a good number of the local hotels garrages aren't listed on any directory. The bloke who owns the B&B round the corner isn't listed anywhere except in the phone book.

And the problem is that the listings don't always meet your search criteria. You search for garage and you get all the lockups. Look for petrol stations and you miss all the workshops.

I remember doing a similar job (listing all the airfields on the England). It took about 2 months and was so inaccurrate we gave up. For example, one airfield was listed as being owned by Mr A but he was the landowner, the actuial airfield was owned by Mr B. The telephone number given was his office. When we finally treacked down the airfield is was no longer operating.

It's going to be same thing for you. You could get the details of a workshop but discover that they are part of a larger holding company with no authority to make purchases. So an hour of your time to collate the data and an hour of the agents time and still no sale.

Why can't the local agents do this themselves? A cheap PC and a couple of hours training and the responsibility is with the person doing the job.

I know this isn't very helpful but I still don't think your manager has really got a handle on how complex, expensive and time consuming this is going to be.

[Vinsomelosesome]

First, I must congratulate you for working in an organization who has their goals set so right. I'm glad you could trash out your concerns with your Sales Director and that he agreed with you to trim down your task.

Its neat that you are recording the data electronically but not good that you are distributing by paper. You mentioned earlier that most of your agents are not computer savvy. I am taking this point into consideration while contributing my two pence.

Apart from making data accessible to your agents, your system gives you the opportunity to identify the cream of your agent pool. By making a simple switch to cellular distribution of data upon request by a registered agent's cell number, you can acheive this objective. So when an agent wants to know the number of garages within an area, all he has to do is send you an SMS like <Business> <post code> to 123456 and your database can respond much sooner than any paper channel. The convinience level goes up for your agent offering you better and accountable use of the invested in data. I'm sure if you were an agent the chances of you using your cell phone to get data would be favoured over hard copy by you too.

The retrievability of data plays a crucial role for data mining projects to be successful.

Also you'd know about specific requirements of your agents and the conversion rates of the businesses whos data he/she asked you for. The chances of replicating success and identifying causes for failure goes much higher in such a system.

[joshwcw]

Hi, I just came across this thread and cant help but add a genuine intro to our services in the hope it will help you out. Just hope this won't be seen as an outrageous plug!

We supply business lists for direct marketing, and I'm sure our technical guys could come up with a bespoke list based on businesses within a radius of specific postcides of your agents' locations, or the SIC/postcode splits you mentioned. Then you'd get the data electronically (fully TPS checked of course) for you to divide up and distribute however you wanted.

Obviously its going to cost more than buying a CD directory, but I'd have thought its not going to cost much more than the time you'd have to spend sorting all this out manually! Plus of course we can also look at ways of keeping the data clean and accurate on an ongoing basis.

PM me if you are interested or take a look at http://www.selectabase.co.uk to see more about what we do.